Windows Movie Maker


What is it?
  • Windows Movie Maker 2.1 makes home movies amazingly fun. With Movie Maker 2.1, you can create, edit, and share your home movies right on your computer. Build your movie with a few simple drag-and-drops. Delete bad shots and include only the best scenes. Then share your movie via the Web, e-mail, or CD. Using third-party software you can even take movies you've made and turn them into DVDs. You can also save your movie back to the video tape in your camera to play back on a TV or on the camera itself.

How can you use it?
  • Turn photos and video clips into great-looking movies and photo slide shows that you can share with your class and on the Web.
  • Create polished movies in about a minute. Use the AutoMovie feature to add transitions, soundtrack, and title in about a minute.
  • Use artistic visual effects to add motion, pan, zooms, and more.
  • Prompts help you upload and share your movie on YouTube and other video-sharing sites.
  • Create a timeline that moves: Present a succession of historical events in a photo slide show with music from that period.
  • Make your movie morph: For science class, present the stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Create a photo slide show with images you grab from bing.com.
  • Demonstrate things you can’t bring to class: Videotape feeding time for lions or gorillas at the zoo. or capture the physics at play in a local skate park with still photos or video.
  • Share the classics in a fresher way: shoot video of various students reciting a phrase or two from a shakespearean sonnet. string them together in a movie, and suddenly all eyes are on the screen. The whole class hangs on every famous word.
  • Try a different angle for math: For math class, share all the ways that angles appear in everyday life, from a city skyscraper to the painted lines in the school parking lot to the countless angles at play on a pool table.
  • Start a lively debate: Frame a debate topic by sharing the pros and cons of an issue with photos.
  • Can be used over any age group and with any curricular application.

Why would you use it?
  • Easy to create videos and slide shows: AutoMovie lets you create a polished movie from your photos, video clips, and music in about one minute.
  • Easy to enhance: Add variety to movies with black and white, artistic, mirror, motion, and other visual effects. add pan and zoom moves to still photos for a professional look.
  • Easy to share: share your movie on the Web. Follow step-by-step prompts to help you quickly upload to YouTube, Facebook, and other video-sharing sites.
  • PRO: Engage, Entertain, Educate
  • PRO: Ease of use
  • PRO: Free for PC users
  • CON: May take a bit of time and patience for the teacher to introduce how to use the software to the students.
  • Standards: 1 a-d, 2 a-d, 3 a-d, 4 a-d, 5 a-d, 6 a-d

References
LESSON PLAN using Windows Movie Maker or other Digital Storytelling Tool by Karen Casselman